However, as our schools attempt to equip students with the skills of the future, Australia's copyright laws are stuck in the "chalk and talk" era. Designed to address the challenges of photocopying in schools, they bear little relevance to education in the internet age.

Australia's copyright laws put roadblocks in the way of educational use of technologies such as "big data" or machine learning, cloud-based software and 3D printing. That's because many existing copyright exceptions apply only to "in-class" uses, and do not allow uses beyond the four walls of the classroom. These technologies are transforming the way we live, learn and work on a scale similar to the Industrial Revolution, yet our copyright laws greatly limit their use in Australia.

Another problem with existing copyright law is that schools pay many millions each year to use free internet content, such as online teaching resources and fact sheets.

Not 'us versus them'

It is important that copyright reforms do not become an "us versus them" debate, where the interests of the education sector are said by some to be at odds with the interests of Australian creators. This could not be further from the truth.

In reality, Australian schools are one of the biggest supporters of Australian creative industries. Australian schools purchase more than $700 million of creative content each year. Parents also pay millions in licence subscriptions to services such as Mathletics and Reading Eggs to supplement school learning. None of this spending would be affected by fair use.

Schools also pay almost $100 million each year in licence fees to collecting organisations for the use of content in schools, from photocopying materials for students, to playing music in a school concert. Despite advice to the contrary, fair use would not mean licensing payments would end for their Australian author members.

Schools would continue to pay for photocopying a chapter of a Peter Carey novel to hand to students, photocopying sheet music for the school band, playing a film in the library on a rainy day, performing a Jimmy Barnes song in the school play, or playing Sia's latest hit over the PA system.

No threat to creative sector

Introducing fair use would not be the death of the Australian creative sector. With copyright fees continuing to Australian creators, it would simply ensure that Australian schools are not held back from using the most up-to-date technologies in the interests of Australian students, and that education budgets are no longer wasted on free internet materials that creators never expected to be paid for anyway.

The Australian government has acknowledged that Australia's current exceptions arguably restrict some reasonable fair uses of copyright material. In its response to the Productivity Commission's report into Australia's Intellectual Property Arrangements, the government states its commitment to creating "a modernised copyright exceptions framework that keeps pace with technological advances and is flexible to adapt to future changes". It will conduct further consultations on how to best achieve this.

We need to ensure we do everything we can to prepare today's students for tomorrow's world. That's why the Independent Schools Council of Australia supports copyright reform: getting copyright policy right is critical to ensuring our educators can use technology most effectively as they prepare our students for the workplaces of the future.

Colette Colman is executive director of the Independent Schools Council of Australia.